


Timeline for Cobra Kai Series and The Karate Kid Trilogy

by Storyshark2005



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series), Karate Kid (Movies)
Genre: Canon Timeline, Meta, Other, Reference material, Timelines
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-03
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2020-02-16 18:32:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18696979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Storyshark2005/pseuds/Storyshark2005
Summary: This is a reference for use of anyone writing in the Karate Kid or Cobra Kai fandom. I started this timeline, because to be honest the timelines in this fandom are a little crazy! See specific note on the All Valley Tournament.Please leave a comment if you think of other events I should add, or if you spot any errors! This is meant to be a living reference for the fandom, and I would love to keep it updated and fresh.Thank you to all who contribute to this community, happy to be a new member!





	Timeline for Cobra Kai Series and The Karate Kid Trilogy

##  **THE KARATE KID AND COBRA KAI: MAJOR EVENTS TIMELINE**

 

 

 

** Pre-Canon Events **

****

**June 9, 1925:** Nariyoshi Miyagi born in Okinawa, Japan

 **1941:** John Kreese is born

 **December 18, 1968:**  Daniel LaRusso is born

 **1967:**  Johnny Lawrence is born 

 **1970 to 1972:** John Kreese becomes the U.S Army's Karate champion (as seen in the framed picture, in both the KK Trilogy, and S2 of CK)

 **1972-1975 (roughly):** Fellow solider Terry Silver asks John Kreese to teach him karate. Kreese taught Silver "The way of the Fist". John Kreese then trained the rest of the infantry company. This small elite group of soldiers becomes the first Cobra Kai class.

 **Sometime between Dec 1976-1977:** Daniel's father passes away when Daniel is 8 years old. 

 **1975 to 1985?:** After leaving the Army John Kreese opens up Cobra Kai dojo with Terry Silver's help. He teaches "The way of the fist" and the philosophy of "Strike first; Strike Hard; No Mercy" because he wants his students to be winners. In Vietnam Kreese felt that the U.S was not allowed to win. He taught "No Mercy" because he didn't want his students to ever lose again.

 

 

**The Eighties: Karate Kid, Karate Kid: Part II, Karate Kid: Part III **

 

 **December 1981:** Johnny's 1st All Valley Under-18 Tournament. He wears the gi that he eventually gives to Miguel in S1E5

 **Summer 1982** : Johnny meets Ali at the movie theaters, and Ali upends her popcorn all over Dutch. This is the Summer after Johnny’s Freshman year at West Valley High School. They begin dating, with their first date at ‘Golf ‘n Stuff’

 **Fall 1982** : Johnny begins his Sophomore year at West Valley High.

 **December 1982:** Johnny wins his first Championship, at the 1982 All Valley Under-18 Tournament

 **Summer 1983:** Ali and Johnny have been dating one full year

 **Fall 1983** : Johnny begins his Junior year at West Valley High.

 **December 1983:** Johnny wins his second Championship at the 1983 All Valley Under-18 Tournament, his Junior year. He does not give up a single point.

 **Summer 1984:** Johnny and Ali get into a fight. According to Johnny in S2E6, Johnny gets wasted the night of Ali's birthday and misses the celebration. Dutch breaks a dartboard and goes to "juvy" (juvenile detention center) for the first time. Ali dumps Johnny after 2 years of dating.

 **Fall 1984:** Johnny’s Senior Year. Daniel LaRusso moves to the Valley from New Jersey, and begins his Senior at West Valley High School

 **October 1984:** Halloween Dance. Daniel gets the crap beat out of him after turning a hose on Johnny. Johnny almost kills Daniel with a flying side kick.

 **Oct - Dec 1984:** Daniel has two months to train for the 1984 All Valley Under-18 Tournament

 **Dec 19, 1984:** 1984All Valley Under-18 Tournament. Daniel LaRusso unseats Johnny Lawrence, the two-time defending Champion, to win. Kreese tries to strangle Johnny in the parking lot, and snaps his second place trophy in half.

 **Spring Semester 1985:** Time period between ‘The Karate Kid’ and ‘The Karate Kid: Part II’.  “The Lost Semester”. Daniel and Ali date from December to May/June-ish. Daniel, Ali and Johnny finish their Senior Year. 

 **Summer 1985:** Events of ‘The Karate Kid Part II’. Daniel and Miyagi travel to Okinawa to visit Miyagi’s sick father and confront Sato and Chozen.

  * **Prom Night, May/June 1985:** Lucille tells Daniel her company has picked her to go to Fresno. They will leave in 2 days (not the day after Prom, but the following day). Daniel goes to Prom with Ali. She borrows his car, trashes it, and then informs him she has met a football player from UCLA, fallen in love. Presumably, this is a breakup speech. Mr. Miyagi also talks with Lucille on Prom Night, and he convinces her to let Daniel stay at his place for the 2 months, instead of going to Fresno.
  * **Day After Prom:** Daniel recounts his bad luck to Mr. Miyagi at the Miyagi-do dojo. Mr. Miyagi fixes the engine of the Ford, and teaches Daniel the hammer/nail technique. He tells Daniel that he can stay at the dojo for the Summer. Miyagi then receives the letter from Okinawa, and somehow purchases a next-day ticket, and makes it to the Passport Office the same day. Daniel resigns himself to Fresno. Daniel talks with his mother that night and she tells him he can go to Okinawa with Miyagi.
  * **2 Days After Prom:** Miyagi has a 6pm taxi ride to the airport, for his trip to Okinawa. During the day, Daniel purchases a same-day ticket to Okinawa, gets a Passport, and runs to the airport to join Miyagi on the flight.



  

 

 

 

> ***Note:** Fanon sometimes has Johnny and Daniel encountering each other at graduation- especially as their last names would likley have them sitting/standing next to eachother. Normally a graduation ceremony would happen in late May or early June. But since Daniel plans to leave 2 days after Prom in 'Karate Kid II', this would place Prom night at the end of the school year, which is super whacky, and leaves no time for a graduation ceremony. Just another timeline inconsistency by the film writers. Fic writers would do well to pretend Prom night happened a few weeks before Miyagi and Daniel leave for Okinawa if they want to leave a window for West Valley High School's Graduation of 1985. 

 

 **Fall 1985:** Events of ‘The Karate Kid Part III’. Daniel and Miyagi open up a bonsai shop, and are harassed by Kreese, Terry Silver, and Mike Barnes, to goad Daniel into defending his Championship.

 **Dec 1985:** 1985 All Valley Under-18 Tournament. Daniel LaRusso defends his Championship by defeating Mike Barnes.

 

 

 ****Note on Daniel's age:** Wikipedia lists Daniel being born in 1967. However there are conflicting facts:   
  
\- Daniel was able to participate in an "Under 18" tournament in both 1984 and 1985. This would indicate he turns 16 in KK, and he turned 17 in KK: Part 3. 

\- We also know that Daniel doesn't go back to school the next year in KK:II , so that makes him a Senior in highs school in the first film.

So, is he turning 16, or 17? Sixteen seems too young for a Senior, but seventeen has its own problems. 

At 16, he could have earned a 'restricted license' which would have allowed him to drive, though not with teen passengers (although no one here is saying Daniel would have followed those rules).

At 17, he probably could get a full license (at least by current California law, I haven't been able to find information on California driving laws in the 1980s, but that's getting pretty far into the weeds.) 

So the driver's license clue doesn't help much. 

[TheLadyDisdain ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLadyDisdain/pseuds/TheLadyDisdain) raises a good middle-ground conclusion. Daniel's a sharp kid. He might have skipped a year somewhere in middle school. Although that puts him in the same graduating class as Daniel and Ali, this would make him one year younger than them, and it would make sense that he turned 16 right before his first tournament in 1984, reconciling the plot from KK:III. 

Another possibility- maybe the New Jersey and California school systems were different enough with requirements, that even though Daniel would have been entering his Junior year in NJ, perhaps the California school system placed him a year ahead, in the Senior class? 

 **Most likely:** The writers don't think this hard about banal details. Probably Robert Kames just didn't know how old a high school senior was supposed to be. But we all know- fanfiction writers do care! Feel free to comment with your own conclusions!

 

> *****Update 5/20/19** Reading the original script, Daniel turns 16 the night before the tournament, making his birthday 12/18/1968. Since this is Kamen's writing, I'm gonna go ahead and assume this as canon until we hear otherwise. 

 

 

 

** The '90s and '00s: Between Karate Kid Trilogy and Cobra Kai **

 

 **Late ‘80s / early ‘90s:** Daniel (probably 18, 19, or in his early 20s) gets a job at a used car lot in Tarzana. Daniel outsells the owner his first month on the job. (mentioned in S2E4)

 **Sometime in 2002:** LaRusso Auto Grand Opening (see scrapbook, S2E8)

 **January 2002 (approx.)** : Laura Lawrence dies (mentioned in S2E3) 

 **February 4, 2002:** Robby Keene is born (Johnny gives us this date in S2E3) 

 **October 14, 2002:** Samantha LaRusso is born (according to the KK Fan Wiki she was born 'Summer 2002' BUT you can see her birthday from the scrapbook in S2E8. My nerdiest TV fan stalker moment thusfar!)

**2006ish:** Anthony LaRusso is born (not clear exactly when, the actor according to a google search is 13 years old as of 2019)

**November 15, 2011:** Mr. Miyagi dies (view on gravestone in S1E5)

 

 

 

**COBRA KAI: NOTE ON ALL-VALLEY TOURNAMENT TIMING**

It seems the writers here realized what a pain in the ass it is to have the climax of the story in December, which is usually in the middle of a school year. When writing about High Schoolers, it makes more sense to begin in August and end in May, with the arc of the story coinciding with the school year. Originally, in “The Karate Kid”,  the 1984 All Valley Tournament takes place in December. See example below, from “The Karate Kid” and S1E7 of “Cobra Kai.”

 

(Left to Right: 1984 Poster from the original film, 2018 magazine advertisement from S1E7: All Valley)

 

This is a smart move, because the cramped timeline of “The Karate Kid” was always problematic. It only gave Daniel a ludicrous 2 months to train after getting the crap kicked out of him at Halloween, making the prospect of him defeating a serious black belt like Johnny Lawrence almost absurd. An extra 5 months to train would have made this victory way more plausible.

Ending the movie in December also leaves a strange Spring “Lost Semester” lingering at the end Karate Kid I, before Part II (see above timeline). This “Lost Semester” would have been rich for story and events, and has much potential as a setting in fanfiction. Johnny and Daniel would have had to finish the last half of the school year in each other’s close proximity, a perfect brew for great drama.

For the Cobra Kai series, situating the All Valley Tournament in May 2018* gives the story more room to breathe, and also gives Miguel a much more plausible time frame to train.

It also ends the story at a convenient time to place Season 2 during the Summer, which means the writers can concentrate on the students learning karate, instead of having to write their training around a school day.

 

 

**Overall Cobra Kai Season Timeline:**

**August 2017 to May 2018:** Season One

  * ****May 19, 2018:** **All-Valley Under-18 Tournament



**May 2018 - August 2018:** Season Two 

 

*Note: We know the All-Valley Tournament in Season 1 took place in May 2018, thankfully due to this convenient shot at the beginning of Episode 10, showing a t-shirt reading “50 Years of Karate in the Valley: 1968-2018”

  


 

* * *

 

**Geography of The Valley:**

 

The Cobra Kai folks also posted a map of the Valley on Twitter. Keep in mind, however, that this map is really sideways. The 101 through that part of LA runs east-west. The only thing not on here is the Miyagi-do dojo (or Miyagi Residence). Anybody know where that's at? Maybe we can edit the map and add it!

  

 

Aaaaaad here's a custom one I made because I had nothing better to do with my evening.... It does take some guesses, approximations, and liberties, so it's not official or anything, but is probably close to what the writers had in mind. (This one is small. Just email me (see profile) if you want a larger, higher quality image)

  

 

* * *

 

 

**Please leave a comment if you think of other events I should add, or if you spot any errors! This is meant to be a living reference for the fandom, and I would love to keep it updated and fresh. Thank you to all who contribute to this community, happy to be a new member! I didn't get into the specific events of Cobra Kai, I may do that if people would find it helpful. Let me know!


End file.
